From Noah to George Floyd: the Curse of Ham

 

                                                            Curse of Ham, Medieval miniature 

Introduction

Kerk & Leven (“Church & Life”) is the leading weekly Catholic magazine in the Flemish region of Belgium. Since October 2025, on the invitation of the chief editor of the local edition of the parish of Olen, Cis Marinus, I have been writing a reflective article every two weeks from a philosophical and theological perspective, exploring Christianity in a scientific age.

20 May 2026

From Noah to George Floyd: the Curse of Ham

May 25, 2020, Minneapolis, USA, now six years ago: 46-year-old George Floyd dies after a police officer presses his knee on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes in full view of the world. The dramatic words “I can’t breathe” spread across the globe through social media. It was the spark that ignited an unprecedented wave of protest against racism and police violence. The “Black Lives Matter” movement swept across the world. 

Six years later, however, that wave of change appears to have completely receded. In fact, since Donald Trump became president of the United States again in January 2025, a genuine counter-movement has emerged. A full-blown witch hunt has developed against all initiatives concerning diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Yet racism is not a modern phenomenon. The idea that certain people or skin colors are inferior has deep historical roots. Christians, too, have unfortunately played a role in this. Throughout the centuries, certain Bible passages were used to justify slavery, colonialism, and racial segregation. One of the most harmful examples is the story of the so-called “Curse of Ham,” which would unexpectedly have far-reaching consequences.

The story appears in the Book of Genesis, shortly after the account of the Flood. Noah, the righteous man who survived the Flood together with his three sons and their wives aboard the ark, begins a new life as a farmer with a vineyard. At the first harvest, he drinks too much wine, becomes drunk, and falls asleep naked in his tent. His son Ham sees his father lying naked and tells his brothers Shem and Japheth so they too can come and look. The latter two respectfully walk backwards into the tent and cover their father without looking at him. When Noah awakens and learns what has happened, he pronounces a curse. Strikingly, he does not curse Ham himself, but Ham’s son Canaan. “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers” (Gen. 9:25). That is all the text says. Yet centuries later, this short passage would unintentionally become the catalyst for a dramatic turn in history.

For centuries, people were convinced that all human beings living after the Flood were direct descendants of Noah’s three sons. Traces of this can still be found in our language. For example, we speak of the Semitic languages (including Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic): the Semites were believed to be descendants of Shem. When people gradually discovered that there were black people living deep within Africa, a problem arose. If all people descended from Noah’s three sons, where had these black people come from? Finding an answer to that question was important, because if people began doubting the truth of this biblical story, there was a risk they might begin doubting other parts of the Bible as well.

In the fourth century AD, the Syrian Church Father Ephrem of Nisibis came up with a practical solution: the curse of Ham. According to this interpretation, Ham and his descendants had become black as a result of the curse. One thorny issue had thus been resolved, but unintentionally dark skin would henceforth become associated with sin, punishment, and inferiority.

During the Middle Ages, and especially from the sixteenth century onward, the idea of the curse of Ham had a devastating impact. European powers began systematically trading Africans on a large scale as slaves. People eagerly searched for religious justifications for this practice. The story of the curse of Ham proved particularly useful. Africans were portrayed as descendants of Ham and therefore as people supposedly destined by God himself for slavery. In this way, the Bible was abused to support an economic system of exploitation and dehumanization. The fact that slavery was regarded as entirely self-evident in both the Old and New Testament certainly did not help to curb this misuse.

In the United States, supporters of slavery continued to use the same reasoning well into the nineteenth century. A well-known example is the book Bible Defence of Slavery by Josiah Priest from 1851, published barely more than ten years before the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865. This interpretation continued to exert influence far into the twentieth century. During Apartheid in South Africa and racial segregation in the United States, Bible passages were likewise cited to legitimize inequality. It demonstrates how dangerous religious interpretations can become when detached from their historical context and used to support systems of power.

And yet this racist interpretation stands in direct contradiction to the fundamental message of the Bible. In the creation story, every human being is created in the image and likeness of God. No single people or skin color is given any priority. In the New Testament as well, Jesus constantly breaks through social and ethnic boundaries. He speaks with Samaritans, praises the faith of foreigners, and touches people considered unclean by others. Paul later writes: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

Today it seems self-evident that racism is incompatible with the Christian faith. Yet old ideas continue to reappear, often in new forms. Social media reinforce stereotypes, and political movements exploit fears surrounding migration and diversity. Antisemitism and anti-Muslim sentiments are also resurfacing. That is why it remains important to approach religious texts critically. The Bible is not a loose collection of quotations that can be deployed at will whenever it suits our purposes. Christians are invited to read their sacred texts in their historical context and in light of the Bible’s central message of justice and human dignity.

Pope Francis repeatedly warned against racism and exclusion. In his encyclical Fratelli tutti (“All Brothers and Sisters”), he writes that every human being is a brother or sister, regardless of origin or skin color. This idea aligns with a profound biblical insight: humanity forms one single family. It was not the Bible itself that produced racism, but rather the way people used the Bible to justify their own prejudices. Texts intended to provide meaning and hope were turned into weapons of oppression. 

The death of George Floyd, now six years ago, reminds the world that racism is not a closed chapter of the past. Even today, the question remains urgent of how we as a society deal with difference, power, and human dignity. For Christians in particular, there is a special responsibility to bear witness again and again to the radical equality of every human being.